ARTICLES ABOUT DISINVESTMENT BY DATE - PAGE 2

NEW DELHI: The disinvestment department is readying a Plan B for the rest of the financial year should one of the big-ticket stake sales hit a last-minute hurdle. As many as eight offers are lined up under this option that will end with a Rs 6,000 crore second tranche of sales through the Exchange-Traded Fund (ETF) that the government had launched last fiscal. The department is expected to seek cabinet approval for some offers later this week and start consultations with other ministries for some new ones.

GANDHINAGAR:Ahead of major disinvestments expected in the coming days, country's largest investor LIC today said it will consider all investment offers that come its way and take advantage of opportunities. LIC Chairman S K Roy also said the company is on track to meet the the Rs 55,000-crore equity investment target this fiscal. He also said the Rs 17-trillion insurance firm will have to examine the consequences for LIC due to government hiking FDI in the sector to 49 per cent.

MUMBAI: The government will go for major disinvestment in the next two-and-a-half months and will strive to stick to the fiscal deficit target of 4.1 per cent in the current year, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said today. "As far as disinvestment figures are concerned, we still have close to three months left. And I can only tell you this is going to be period of great activity as far as disinvestment is concerned," he said at an award function organised by a private television news channel.

Trade unions across the country today began a five-day coal industry strike, which is likely to affect production of up to 1.5 million tonnes a day and fuel supply to power plants. The strike call, for the biggest industrial action for any sector since 1977, has been given by the five leading trade unions of the country including BJP-backed Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS). They are protesting against 'disinvestment and restructuring of state-run Coal India' and to press for their other demands including the roll-back of what they call as "process of denationalising of coal sector".

NEW DELHI: Government is looking at using the social media platforms, including Facebook and Twitter , in a big-way to generate interest in its disinvestment programme among investors, high networth individuals and opinion makers. The Department of Disinvestment in the Finance Ministry will hire an advertising or public relation agency for the purpose. DoD said the agency will carry out advertising/PR work for sale of government holdings in state-owned firms through market instruments like, Initial Public Offers (IPOs)

NEW DELHI: A parliamentary committee has suggested that the government set up a new disinvestment commission to review the disinvestment policy. In its report, the Veerappa Moilyled standing committee on finance said the continuation of disinvestment programme without reviewing the disinvestment policy, including its modalities, would doubtlessly end up in failure. "As against a total target of Rs 1.5 lakh crore for disinvestment receipts, only Rs 75,813.71 crore could be realised during the last four fiscals," the committee noted in its report submitted to Parliament.

NEW DELHI: It began with a bang, turned into a whimper soon and bounced back again in the end, but sale of shares -- in PSUs and a private sector firm -- still fetched the government little over Rs 18,000 crore in 2014. Still, a record-breaking stock market rally seems to have largely bypassed the government's disinvestment plans to raise funds from part sale of 'family silver' in 2014, as the proceeds fell by almost one-fifth from over Rs 22,000 crore garnered during the previous calendar year.

Oil and Natural Gas Corp was up 0.39% at 1108 hours after the recent reports that the Coal India, ONGC divestment was deferred until January. The disinvestment department will utilise the intervening period to hold interministerial consultations to create a pipeline of possible stake sales, a senior government official told ET, adding that the finance ministry will seek to sort out the issue of subsidy sharing burden on ONGC. According to the traders, some short-covering was seen as ONGC's free float shares would not increase in the interim Through the stake sale government aims to sell 10 per cent stake in Coal India and 5 per cent in ONGC.

NEW DELHI: The government has identified Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam (SJVN) and manganese-ore miner MOIL as possible candidates for 10 per cent disinvestment in the current fiscal which could together fetch over Rs 1,200 crore to the exchequer. "The disinvestment department has included 10 per cent stake sale each in SJVNL and MOIL for disinvestment in current fiscal," a government official told PTI. A sale of 10 per cent stake or 37.22 crore shares of SJVN could fetch over Rs 890 crore.

NEW DELHI: To encourage participation of small investors in PSU disinvestments, government has decided to double the quota reserved for retail investors to 20 per cent for the forthcoming stake sales in bluechip companies like ONGC and Coal India. The decision assumes significance following the enthusiastic response from retail investors in the Friday's stake sale in steel major SAIL, which fetched the government Rs 1,715 crore. "In the forthcoming OFS, 20 per cent of the offer size shall be reserved for retail investors," an official told PTI. So far 10 per cent of the share sale was reserved for retail investors, who are allowed to invest up to Rs 2 lakh in the OFS. Also a 5 per cent discount was offered to them over the bid price.